Two of a Kind
by Acies de Camena
Summary: Cassandra Cain is one of the most dangeous people alive, but has a hard time holding a conversation because her best form of communication renders the other party unconcious.  What happens when she meets someone who speaks the same language?


Cassandra Cain watched from the rooftop silently as the unit that quickly showed itself to be military began unloading their gear inside the large hotel room just across the alley. Most of their gear was designed for observation only, and that was part of the agreement that had been made between their unit commander and Batman. Oracle had intercepted a communique between this unit and one of there covert agents inside Gotham. The simple fact that they had an agent in Gotham that had been in place for over a month without Oracle knowing had been enough to not only pique the interest of Batman, but also aggravate him slightly.

No one except perhaps Nightwing could tell, but Cassandra always knew his mood. Just another perk of having your blood father learning how to teach his own child to 'speak' with physical combat. This not only gave her the ability to compete with any combatant physically, but she could also read even the most subtle body language as though reading a book.

When Batman had approached her, he had simply asked that she watch the troupe to ensure that there was no trouble. As they had found out, the intercepted message had actually been a courtesy call to the Bat. After fifteen minutes Bruce and Tim had figured out the hidden code within the words and the message read simply. _**__Coming__to__Gotham.__Request__meeting__with__Dark__Knight.**_

During the meeting and before Batman had even begun to say anything, Scarlett had laid everything out on the table. Scarlett and her Unit were part of the G.I. Joes, a secret US Strikeforce whose main target was frequently a terrorist organization known as Cobra.

Scarlett told Batman in no uncertain terms that they were coming into Gotham to watch a group of Cobra operatives by the names Tomax and Xamot during a meeting with an arms Dealer named Destro. The purpose of the operation was to watch, detail, and apprehend all three. A firefight was possible, but they wanted to do everything in their power to not fire a single round. If they though they had a chance of apprehending without gunfire, they would take the chance. Otherwise they would refrain. The Joes had respect for everything that Batman had done in the city and they understood the rules.

Batman had agreed under the condition that they understood that they would be watched, as a precaution and if needed, the Bat would assist. After hearing who these three targerts were, Batman was more than ready for them to be out of the City. Cobra was not a group he wanted thinking they could set up shop in Gotham. Shortly after the meeting, Batman had approached Cassandra and explained the important bits. "Observe, report, and assist _only_ if needed."

Now as Cassandra watched the group, she began to mentally record everything she saw. Cassandra knew by how they were acting about the windows that they had purposely left them open. The way that nearly everyone glanced at the window from time to time let her know that if they were allowed to choose, the blinds would be drawn tightly shut. Leaving the windows open like they were was a courtesy to the Batman, allowing his agent to watch them easily.

First was the Unit Commander, Scarlett. Red Haired and moving with all the confidence of someone who was used to being in control, firmly in command of her unit. She could also tell by the way she interacted with them that the unit respected her. They had been to the proverbial hell and back together and the unit would obey her commands without a single doubt.

Second was the medic, Lifeline by codename. Looking at him, and watching how he reacted to the few weapons that the team had brought, she could tell that he abhorred violence. Strange for a member of a covert military strikeforce.

Third was a mountain of a man, possibly even bigger than Bane. Batman had described him as the only African-American in the group, but she knew his codename even without the tone of the skin. Roadblock is a codename that could only be given to someone of that size. She knew from the case that he opened and the size of the rail gun that he pulled out that Roadblock was their heavy weapons specialist. What was unnerving was the ease in which the man moved the huge weapon.

Then the last three members of the unit showed themselves. These three were the ones that piqued her interest the most. Two of them wore Ninja garb, but not the colors you would expect to see in a group trying to hide in the city. Their masks were down so that Cassandrag could plainly see them.

The male Ninja was a Japanese man and wore a pure white outfit. The only weapons that could be seen plainly were the shuriken on the sash over his chest and the Ninja-to strapped to his back. He moved as fluidly and smoothly as anyone Cassandra had met, with the exception of perhaps Lady Shiva. Though Cassandra usually dismissed anyone claiming to be a "Ninja" she could not help but realize that this man was dangerous. This one she knew to be Storm Shadow.

The second ninja was a Japanese woman who wore a red suit. This, from the intel Batman had given Cassandra, could only be the woman called Jinx. Cassandra was not sure, but it looked as though Storm Shadow and Jinx were related. Perhaps not as close as brother and sister, but related none the less. Jinx's visible weapons were a ninja-to, a pair of sai, and some shuriken. What was the most stunning about Jinx was that for the first three hours that Cassandra watched them, Jinx wore a blindfold the entire time and yet was able to move around in the room without disturbing a single thing.

The last member of the unit, Snake-Eyes by process of elimination, was the one that concerned and intrigued Cassandra the most. Snake-Eyes wore what almost looked like onyx colored spandex, though she could see that there were flexible bits of kevlar woven into the fabric. The cloth also did not shimmer when light hit it like spandex would, instead it almost looked like it absorbed the light. On his back he carried a long bladed Katana, on the hip was the short bladed wakizashi. A holster strapped tightly to his thigh carried an uzi 9mm, and on the same strap that held his katana in place were three grenades. Out of the entire group, he was also the one that never removed his mask, which was made of the same fabric. Over the eyes was a chrome visor that reflected to an almost mirror like quality.

What botherer Cassandra the most about the two ninja's and Snake-eyes was that all three of them were difficult to read. Out of the three, Jinx was the easiest, though she was still troublesome. It was like listening to someone with a thick accent. Storm Shadow was very difficult to read. When she watched him, it was like trying to understand someone speaking Russian when the only language you know is English. The hardest was Snake-eyes. Cassandra quite simply could not read him. When she looked watched him, Cassandra knew what it was like for her friends when they felt the frustration of not being able to understand what she was trying to say. Whenever he moved, it was a surprise to her.

This group of three were probably the most dangerous people she had ever encountered. In a hand to hand fight, she knew that she could probably take all three, but she knew by watching them, that she could not take two of them at once. Certainly Lady Shiva was probably a better hand to hand fighter than Jinx, and perhaps better than Storm Shadow and Snake-eyes, but closer to equals. These were not warriors that fought only hand to hand as Shiva and Cassandra often did. These 'ninja' were just as skilled with the weapons they carried as they were with their hands and feet. Cassandra knew by watching them that they did not kill for joy or for thrills, but that they had killed, and they were extremely efficient at it.

Watching silently for the remainder of the night, Cassandra watched them sleep in shifts with the occasional burst of activity when they thought their targets might be arriving. Just as eastern sky was beginning to brighten slightly, Cassandra heard a single rock shift place and turned quickly. There stood the Batman's first studen, Dick Grayson, known more honestly to Cassandra as Nightwing. Knowing that he was there to relieve her, Cassandra turned back to her targets and blinked twice. Storm Shadow, Jinx, and Snake-eyes were all gone. Glancing frantically around, she barely caught site of the red sash that belonged to Jinx as it disappeared behind a dumpster in the alley below.

Cassandra's mind was blown. How did they move so fast and get down stairs so quickly? Glancing back at Nightwing, she glared at him for a moment, then pointed at Nightwing, then two fingers at her eyes, then pointed to the remaining three soldiers in the room.

Nightwing grunted. "Watch 'em. Got it. I'll call for Robin and Batman to help."

By the time he had finished speaking Cassandra was already three floors down, landing lightly on the fire escape, then dropping silently to the ground less than a dozen steps from where she saw the red sash disappear. Immediately Cassandra saw Jinx in the shadows at the end of the block. Even in her red suit, she was invisible except for the the little bit of red fabric that was sticking out of the shadow. Jinx was letting Cassandra see her on purpose. The game was on.

Taking a deep breath, Cassandra was off at a sprint. Jinx disappeared around the corner, but Cassandra was ready for this. Her slingshot grapple fired straight up and snagged the roof of the building and immediately began retracting, slinging Cassandra to the top of the five story building. Darting across the roof, she hit the other side just in time to see Jinx heading into the next alley. Launching herself into the air, Cassandra then shot her grapple gun again, snagging the roof of the building above Jinx and began to soar throught the air, covering ground quickly. A flash of white In the corner of her eye was the only warning she got before the shuriken severed the rope of her grapple. Turning in mid-air, Cassandra performed two actions simultaneously. Twisting in mid-air, Cassandra grabbed the three batarangs on the quick release at her belt, one in the space between each of her fingers, and hurled them at the white flash, plus an extra little surprise from her palm. With her other hand, Cassandra pulled the smaller grapple gun from her belt and fired at the building again, catching a window and with a tap of her thumb, the rope locked in place. This smaller grapple did not have the retractable power of the slingshot grapple and so would not pull her atop a building, but it served to save her from a nasty fall and she was still catching up with her red-clad prey.

######

Snake-eyes stepped from the shadows and waiting silently as Storm Shadow pull the three odd shaped shuriken from the bricks around him. "She's got skill. To make that throw in freefall and still pull off another grapple shot." Storm Shadow said simply. "Jinx could easily do the same though."

Storm Shadow caught the slight tilt to Snake-eyes' head and then felt his Sword Brother pulling on the end of his Ninja-to scabbard. A second later, Snake-eyes held up a tiny electric tracing beacon covered in some kind of thick paste. As soon as the paste had made contact with the scabbard, it had hardened and glued itself in place. Storm Shadow dropped the three bat shaped shuriken that had been used to distract him and grinned as Snake-eyes dropped the beacon into his pocket. "She's really good."

[[ We should check on her replacement ]] Snake-eyes said, using his only form of peaceful communication, American Sign-Language. [[ If she is as good as I expect, we should see her coming back with Jinx shortly ]]

Storm Shadow nodded in agreement and the Sword brothers disappeared into the shadows and quickly began to make their way back to their own vantage point over the vantage point that their observers had been using to watch them.

Five minutes later, Snake-eyes sat silently and in the shadows as he watched Storm Shadow engage the man who had taken over the duties of watching the Soldiers hotel room. While the man was highly skilled and actually took the upperhand twice in the fight, Storm Shadow emerged triumphant. After the fight, the two shook hands and began talking quietly and amicably. Apparently, these "Bat" characters were quite used to this type of game and Snake-eyes could only assume that meant their leader encouraged this type of challenge.

It was another two minutes later that he caught sight of Jinx and the woman "Bat" returning to the rooftop, and he could tell by Jinx's body language that she had been beaten quite soundly. When Storm Shadow saw Jinx in tow, he and the woman "bat" knew that the fight was now between them. What surprised him the most was that, while Stormshadow put up a good fight, he was blatantly outmatched in hand to hand combat and this woman took him down as though it was routine.

As he watched his Sword-Brother subdued, he felt the presence of two more nearing him. Glancing back he saw the Batman, and his protégé Robin. When the drew close, Snake-eyes held out his hand in a sign of peace, then signed quickly [[ She is very good. ]]

Batman nodded, then quickly signed back [[ Better than I am. ]]

[[ You are a very good leader, or a father figure to her then, if she follows you so readily. ]] Snake-eyes commented.

[[ Both, I would like to think. ]] Batman responded, then pulled out a wooden bokken, the practice weapon of those trained with the Katana, and handed it to Snake-eyes. [[ Your turn I believe. ]]

Snake-eyes took the offered weapon and walked calmly out of the shadows and approached the group of three losers and one victor. Snake-eyes calmly saluted the woman then stood ready, but not in a stance. The "bat" woman stepped into a stance and approached cautiously. Those watching knew on each of their respective sides that neither combatant could speak, but each side found it interesting and unnerving that the combatant from the other side said nothing.

Snakeyes struck first, the bokken snapping out quickly only to be met with a deft fore-arm block by the woman. When he saw the contact, Snake-eyes was concerned that the shot might snap her forearm, but the dull thud of the hit left no doubt in his mind that her wrists were armored, and he could only assume that meant she was protected elsewhere. This that lasted only the slightest fraction of a second but was enough time for the woman to slam her knee into his ribs and nearly disarm him simutaneously. Stepping back, Snake-eyes stepped into a stance this time, ready for the attacks.

When she moved in, he saw her coming attack and moved to counter, but she had anticipated him seeing the attack and was prepared with a counter to his counter, but his mind had now slipped out of the "let's play" mindset and he was in combat mode. The second counter slid past his ear and he deftly slide his elbow into her ribs, only to find that her hand was there to block. Snake-eyes stoiclly took the shot to his ribs that followed and took the opportunity to catch his opponent on the ear with a quick back fist.

Again and again they collided, unable to truly gain an advantage over the other. No matter how quick he was, Snake-eyes could not break her defenses except when they first made contact after each break. It was then that the Ninja realized that when he was in continuous motion, she was able to anticipate everything he did, but in those first two or sometimes three strikes, she was taken off guard. It was when he channeled nothing that she could not read him. When he stayed engaged longer than that, he could not touch her and often took painful shots as a result. What was the most confusing to him, was that Snake-eyes was getting the distinct impression that she was flirting with him while trying to pummel him.

Snake-eyes and his opponent finally broke apart just as Batman stepped forward. "That's enough."

[[ How are you able to read me like that? ]] Snake-eyes signed.

The woman turned and looked at Batman, who then repeated what he had signed. The woman in return held up her fists in a mock guard position and then let them drop.

Batman almost had a chance to speak when Snake-eyes had already replied [[ My guard is not up. ]]

The woman that fought as his equal made another movement that Snake-eyes quickly undestood as instructions to Batman to explain, and then tapped her chest and made the same motion.

"We call her the Black Bat, but her name is Cassandra Cain."

[[ I would return the gesture if I knew my own name. ]] Snake-eyes quickly signed.

Batman nodded, then continued. Cassandra's father is, was, a powerful and highly skilled assassin. Cassandra was one of his experiments. He trained her from birth by teaching her to 'speak' using her body, but not in sign language. All her mental abilities that a normal person channels into learning to speak or in some way, communicate, was channeled into her ability to fight. He tried to turn her into the perfect assassin. A weapon with no remorse. She can read body language of anyone like you or I would read a book. You, she cannot read because you are alwasys guarding your movements and even the slightest actions."

"I'm Sorry," Jinx suddenly spoke up, "but if she was trained to have no remorse, then why does she work with you?"

The man that had introduced himself as Nightwing while the two fought replied to the question. "She has Dyslexia. When she learned to 'speak,' the learning was broken."

Snake-eyes suddenly relaxed himself and made the slightest movement and watched the woman instantly react to the movement. In the blink of an eye the two were engaged again, punches and kicks moving so fast that the others watching, despite how skilled they all were, had trouble keeping track of the actions.

The others watched silence and awe for quite some time before Nightwing glanced over at Storm Shadow. "They aren't still fighting, are they?" Nightwing said more as a statement than a queston.

Storm Shadow let out a low chuckle and replied with a crooked grin, "I don't think so…"

########

Destro sat calmly across the large, ornate oak table from Tomax and Xamot. His broad shouldered and muscular frame was imposing to most, but many of those in the upper echelon of Cobra were similarly built, and with minds _almost_ as sharp as his. The silver mask of pliable metal that covered his entire head would normally be enough to through off those not impressed by his stature. The Twins were not intimidated easily, if ever.

Identical in almost every way, yet complete opposites. Dressed in their normal uniforms, they looked exactly as though mirror opposits. The part in the hair was on opposite sides of the head, the angle that the hair was combed down – opposite. They even wore the small steel neck and shoulder guard on opposite shoulders. The fun part was that the two often switched sides that they wore their gear in an effort to keep others off balance. The one distinguishing mark was the small scar on the cheek of Xamot; the only visible marking that one could used to differ one from the other.

Destros rented warehouse office was centered directly in the middle of his rented warehouse with large pane windows surrounding it that afforded the occupants a full three-hundred and sixty degree view of the warehouse. Looking out of the windows, one would see twenty-five members of the crimson guard, all in their full red uniform with their ak-47 rifles held at the ready. Mixed with the crimson guard was another twenty of Destro's personal guard, all equipped with smaller automatic weapons with a faster fire-rate. The Delt25's, they were called and one of Destro's own creation. Set in various locations through the warehouse were also motion detectors, and temperature differential scanners.

As Destro was in the middle of a particular sticking point in the contract he was trying to make with Cobra about some RPG munnitions, one of his Guards approached the door, clearing his throat to make his presence known.

"Yes Arvin?" Destro said simply. He had made it a point long ago to ensure that he knew the names and family of each of his guard. This made them both more loyal, and easier to threaten when the need arose.

"Sir. We have seen the same car circle the building three times. It appears to be a Pizza Delivery Vehicle." The guardsman reported simply and crisply.

Destro nodded. "If he approaches the door, send him away curtly."

The Guardsmen nodded but three minutes later, Destro and the Twins heard a sound from the front door and the sound of a young voice echoing through the warehouse. "Look, I know I have the right address, I circled the place four times to be sure! I've got 12 large pepperoni here and I need a hundred thirty five, twenty four or my ass is grass." A loud sound of something being pushed and then the same voice, "Oh shit…"

Destro stood and began walking down the stairs quietly from one of the offices two doors. The young man now on his knees, hands behind his head, had four fully auto weapons aimed directly at him. The pizza boy watched silently, his mouth wide as Destro his the bottom of the stairs and walked calmly over to him and pulled a small scanner from his belt. Silently, Destro ran the scanner over the young man, then over the several boxes of Pizza. Grabbing the small cell phone from the Pizza Boy's pocket, Destro removed the battery, then scanned the object for any signals being transmitted. When everything came up dead, Destro plugged the battery back in and handed the phone back to the young man.

"Now then, I'm assuming you understand that you have stumbled upon something much larger than yourself, yes?" When the young pizza delivery boy nodded, Destro Continued. "Very good. Understand that what you have seen tonight is part of a government operation with the intent to supply support for the Batman. If you breathe a word of what you have seen this night, you could spend time in a Federal Holding facility that would make Guatanamo Bay look like a county fair. Is this understood?"

Again the young man nodded, this time with a bit less fear in his eyes. Satisfied, Destro pulled out a small wallet from inside his vest and pulled out two, one-hundred dollar bills and handed them to the delivery driver. "Take this and consider your delivery completed." Looking away from the Pizza Boy, Destro nodded to one of his guardsmen who then escorted the young man back to the entrance of the building. Five minutes later, Destro and the Twins were once again at their desk discussing the details of their deal once more.

########

Like shadows, Snake-eyes, Stormshadow, Cassandra, and Jinx all silently entered the warehouse. With the silence of death, the deadly warriors all moved into their positions while Snake-eyes slipped into the central office, placed the transmitter next to the radio in the office, then slipped out again. The group then crouched in the shadows in absolute silence. They would not move until either the four felt the subtle vibration on their belts or the second diversion arrived. Another diversion meant for the four to leave the warehouse unnoticed. The vibration signal transmitted to the small disc on their belts signaled them to take their targets down.

Four hours past without a sound or any inclination of what would be coming next. Suddenly, Cassandra felt the soft vibration against her abdomen. This immediately caused her to smile widely behind the borrowed ninja mask. They had agreed that for this operation it would be best if she was not outfitted as one of the "bat-family" to stop Cobra from having any ideas of vengeance.

Glancing over, Cassandra saw all three of the Ninja's looking at her. With a nod, she pulled out the short bamboo reed and pressed a single dart into the end of the reed and the other three did the same. Quickly the quartet had selected their four targets that, when dropped unconscious, would be the least likely to get the attention of the other guards. The first targets would be those in the catwalks and above ground-level positions. Three breaths later, four darts punctured the skin of four guards, who then slumped to the floor without a sound. Five breaths later, four more guards fell slumped to the ground. Then another four to the ground, followed by four more, these two groups had to be taken in pairs due to the proximity to one another. There was two more sets of three guards that were taken then. Finally the last of the guards, 23 in total, were all bunched to closely for the silent techniques. Jinx and Snakeyes moved in the shadows until they were perched silently above the largest cluster of guards near the main garage entrance to the warehouse while Snake-eyes and Cassandra took position just above the entrance to the office in the center. At this, a quick flash of a blue LED light signaled Stormshadow and Jinx, who then replied with their own quick flash. Snakeyes, slide his katana free of its scabbard and slipped it in front of one of the motion detectors then moved back quickly.

The soft sound of a suppressed automatic weapon firing several times greeted Cassandras ears at the same time as the roof of the office was perforated with bullets. Immediately afterwards the sound of one of the other men in the office yelled out, "Guards Down!"

At this, the twins ran out of each of the opposite doors of the office and were met on both sides by Snake-eyes and Cassandra. The twin with the scar faced Cassandra and his foot snapped into a straight kick that Cassandra easily side stepped. By the time she had made it to the man's knee, she heard the bellows of the guards in the main entrance as the two Ninja's above them dropped the sonic grenades into their midst. When Cassandra was just finishing slamming the knuckles of her left hand into his right temple, the ear numbing pop of the grenades floored the guardsmen but had little affect on the Ninjas, as they had place dampeners inside their masks before they even entered the warehouse.

Cassandra was mildly surprised when the man she had just hit didn't fall immediately to the ground, but then simply ducked under the back of the elbow aimed at her head and then struck him once in the nerve cluster under the armpit and then again in the floating rib on the same side. With a groan, the scarred man fell to the ground. Glancing over, Cassandra saw that Snake-eyes was holding the other twin as a body shield and then lunging to the side when the silver masked man fired his automatic weapon into the chest the helpless twin.

As the twin fell to the ground limply, Destro kept his focus on Snake-eyes, likely because he _knew_ how dangerous the Ninja was. When Cassandra closed in, Destro caught sight of her and turned to fire his weapon. Reading his movement, she knew that he would turn and fire at about chest level. Dropping low as she came in, Cassandra fell into a 'baseball' slide on her right side that carried her past the man. The woman felt the pop of the suppressed weapon in the air as the bullets flew harmlessly over her and as she slid by, Cassandra jerked her left knee out and into the man's shin. Destro bellowed loudly as the leg fractured and he collapsed to the ground.

Destro, while he had lost grip on his Delt25, pulled out the beretta on his waist and began to take aim on the woman that had broken his leg. He felt the familiar sensation of a blade pressed against his back and then with a sigh dropped the gun.

Cassandra nodded in thanks to Snake-eyes, then looked out the sides of the office and saw that the rest of the Joe Team was already in the warehouse and they group had begun to cuff and restrain the cobra guards at the direction of Jinx and Stormshadow. Turning back, she nodded to Snake-eyes, then they quickly bound Destro then each turned away and bound the twins.

Just as they finished, the red-haired woman that she knew as Scarlett came up the stairs. Snake-eyes, who normally was unreadable, purposefully let his body language be readable when Scarlett arrived at the top of the stairs. Cassandra knew immediately that the two were lovers and with a subtle nod, let Snake-eyes know that she understood. Scarlet stepped forward and quickly shook Cassandra's hand. "Thank you very much for the help. Snake-eyes speaks very highly of you."

Cassandra nodded and bowed slightly in the direction of Snake-eyes in thanks.

"I don't want to keep you here for the boring parts," Scarlet continued, "but I did want to thank you again for the help, and also Snake-eyes has asked me to extend an invitation to you to come as a guest instructor at the Pit, our home base of operations."

Cassandra cocked her head slighty and stroked her chin for a moment, letting Scarlet know that she was considering the offer but leaving it at that.

Snake-eyes let out the raspy noise that Scarlett knew to be his chuckle. Scarlett smiled a crooked smile and nodded. "I've left contact information with the Batman if you choose to make a visit."

With that, Cassandra nodded and like the Ninja's she had met just this day, slipped away into the shadows with no more noise than a mouse crossing a thick carpet.


End file.
